


Lucky

by Edonohana



Category: Dragonlance - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-25
Updated: 2011-10-25
Packaged: 2017-10-24 22:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/268824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/pseuds/Edonohana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raistlin and an injured Tanis are lost together in a maze of twisty tunnels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lucky

The companions had been trudging through the endless maze of mountain caves for several days (as best as they could judge without sun or moon to guide them), and had already battled a rust monster, a skeleton hook horror, and a gelatinous cube. But nothing had truly struck fear into Tanis' heart until he heard the cheerful piping tones of Tasslehoff's voice saying, "Now this looks really interesting!"

In what had seemed to be just another twisty tunnel, Tas had wandered off to examine what, even to Tanis' dark-seeing eyes, looked like a simple lump of rock. "See?" exclaimed Tas, poking at it. "It's a machine, all fossilled up!"

Raistlin drew in a harsh breath. "Fossilized, you mean, like your brain." He pushed away his brother, who had reached out a hand of support in case the deep breath led to a coughing spell, and cautiously approached the lump. His red robes swished across the moldering cave floor as he warned the kender, "Don't touch it."

"But, Raistlin, this looks like a lever... Ooh, and it's not as fossilized as the rest. Wonder if it still--" Tas stretched out his hand toward it.

"No!" yelled Tanis, and dove toward him.

"--works," said Tas, and pushed it down.

As the floor of the cave dropped out from under Tanis' feet, he shoved Tas away from the ancient trap. As Tanis fell into darkness, the last sounds he heard were a thump followed by an aggrieved-sounding "Ouch!"

Tanis was used to waking up in some pain, after a day of fighting draconians followed by a night of sleeping on stone or hard earth, but not like the nauseating agony that jolted through his right arm when he first stirred. His head throbbed, too. So did the rest of his body. Then he recalled his fall--and worse, his landing.

"Lie still," came a familiar sardonic whisper. "Unlike some members of our gallant party, I haven't noticed that you seek out pain as proof of your manly worth. Not physical pain, anyway."

"Raistlin?"

Tanis opened his eyes, but tried not to move any other part of his body. He was lying-- he sighed-- in yet another twisty tunnel, lit only by the mage's glowing staff. Raistlin crouched beside him, rummaging through a small and half-empty pack. Apparently Caramon had once again lightened his brother's load by cramming half of Raistlin's supplies into his own pack. Given Tanis' recollection of a very long fall, and the fact that he could not even hear the voices of the rest of the company, that was not good news.

Raistlin's long fingers brushed lightly over Tanis' arm, then slid under his leather armor to check for injuries on the rest of his body. It had been a long time since the young mage had touched him thus, though Raistlin had occasionally tended to his wounds or Caramon's or Kitiara's. Raistlin had learned simple healing techniques as part of his magical studies, and his hands were defter than any warrior's. But that had been years ago, before they had met Goldmoon and her staff of true healing. Before the test at the Tower of Sorcery. Those golden fingers, that used to be so pale, burned hot as a fever when they probed Tanis' neck and head for swelling and the grate of bone on bone.

"I'm glad you could catch yourself," said Tanis. "Featherfall?"

Raistlin's head whipped sharply around, and he coughed harshly. "It was difficult enough to do the spell for one on such short notice. Most mages would not only have let you fall, they'd be lying beside you now with bones cracked as yours."

Tanis sighed. "I wasn't being sarcastic. Our odds of surviving this are much higher if at least one of us is unhurt. And honestly, Raistlin, have you ever seen me blame anyone for saving himself first?"

A pair of hourglass pupils vanished under golden lids as Raistlin blinked, then quickly regained his arrogant stare. "You can sit up now. Here..."

Raistlin held Tanis' arm still against his chest, and used his other hand to help brace Tanis as he sat up. Tanis' vision blurred for a moment, then the cave regained its clarity. It was not, unfortunately, any different afterward.

"How bad is it?"

Raistlin ticked off the damage on his strange metallic fingers. "Broken arm, as I'm sure you noticed. Concussion, same. And..." He hesitated. "I was not given my eyes for any practical purpose, Tanis. They can make it difficult to see what's really there."

The pounding behind Tanis' own eyes made even simple information hard to recall or analyze. It took him a moment or two to process what he had heard. Then, as Raistlin began to improvise a splint and sling from Tanis' long dagger and bits of rope he had stashed away in his pack, Tanis realized. He would have laughed, except that it would have hurt. "You mean you see me dying anyway."

"As I said," replied Raistlin coolly. "Par-Salion loves his externalized metaphors, but he would regret it if I ever needed to examine him for signs of shock."

"Shall we wait?" asked Tanis. "They know exactly where we fell. They should be able to build a rope ladder... I don't know why we haven't heard them shouting."

"That would be because of the four-foot slab of rock that closed the trapdoor after we fell through," said Raistlin. "Given the level of intelligence remaining to the party now that we're not there, I imagine they spent some time trying to break through, and are now rushing about randomly searching for us. If we're lucky, they'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs."

Tanis winced, both at Raistlin's unkind words and at their probable truth. "Wait, then."

But Raistlin looked searchingly into Tanis' eyes, laid his hot fingers again upon his face, and muttered some words under his breath. For a moment, the hourglasses in Raistlin's eyes pulsed in the rhythm of a heartbeat.

"No," said the mage. "We don't have that much time. If we head upward, we might find them sooner."

"I'm not dying some time at the end of my life, am I?" asked Tanis quietly. "I'm dying now."

The look Raistlin turned upon him was so cold that Tanis wondered if he'd imagined the flicker of compassion and concern that Tanis had seen earlier. "Lucky for you, Tanis, your condition is one that has a cure somewhere in one of these tunnels."

Tanis staggered to his feet. His head swam, and he leaned against a cold tunnel wall. Then he was touched by something hot. Raistlin hauled Tanis' arm over his own bony shoulders, and slammed down the Staff of the Magus into the echoing stone floor.

"But..." protested Tanis. "You're not strong enough. Caramon's always supporting you."

"Then this will be a delightful change of pace," snapped Raistlin. "Or would you prefer to ask the wall?"

Tanis tried to lean as lightly as possible for the first few turns of corridor. But he soon grew dizzy and ill, and lost track of where he was going or what he had meant to do. He had no idea how long a time had passed before they turned a corner, and heard voices and saw the welcome orange light of torches.

Caramon rushed toward them. "Raist! Are you all right?"

The mage held up one frail hand to block him. "Open your eyes!" he snapped. "Who do you think is supporting whom? Or, if that's too complex, who has his arm in a sling?"

Caramon halted, a familiar look of bewilderment and hurt coming to his face."But..."

"Sit, there's no more need for this," said Raistlin. He propped Tanis against a cave wall, disentangled their arms, and turned his back on them both in a flourish of crimson robes.

Tas dashed up to inspect Tanis' splint. "Nice knots. I told Flint we all ought to jump after you, but he wouldn't let me. See, it was obviously a gnome device, and we know the gnomes always have nets and sponges and things to catch you, and Raistlin's fine even though I guess Tanis bounced off the net, so we could have all jumped down and it would have been much faster!"

Flint's face turned from red to purple as he struggled to find words to reply. Goldmoon hurried toward Tanis, staff in hand. "Lucky we found you in time!" she exclaimed as she examined his wounds.

"Yes," said Tanis, looking at Raistlin. The mage had doubled over in a fit of the painful coughing that took him after too much exertion. Pushing away his brother's offered hand, he fell to his knees and braced himself with one hand flat on the floor. "Lucky."


End file.
